On Tuesday, international passengers arriving at British airports, including Heathrow, experienced significant delays at immigration due to a nationwide computer outage affecting the passport control e-gates. The Border Force later announced that the issue had been resolved. Investigations suggest the disruption was likely caused by a Wi-Fi outage that impacted a crucial database. Further complications arose when it was revealed that the Home Office had not informed BT about a software update, contributing to the chaos. A border staff union member emphasized the need for improved contingency planning following these failures. Officials involved include James Cleverly, Vote Pursglove, and Mark J Harper.
✈️ E-gate border chaos sparked when Home Office failed to tell BT it was updating software https://t.co/JbLTRAHlHC
In a week when we've learned the UK failed to protect Armed Forces' payroll data and cannot apparently reliably operate electronic border controls https://t.co/rKXKRDPFHh
A border staff union member has called for better contingency planning after a nationwide failure of passport control e-gates at UK airports on Tuesday https://t.co/zpTMP69OBz
Travel chaos at airports operating passport e-gates is suspected to have been caused by a Wi-Fi outage that knocked out a key database. @JamesCleverly @VotePursglove @Mark_J_Harper https://t.co/3kmIAjQ778 https://t.co/JRLwjgzEmG
International passengers arriving at British airports, including Heathrow, faced long lines at immigration checkpoints for several hours on Tuesday before the Border Force announced that a nationwide computer outage that caused the delays had ended. https://t.co/ARZF5ZPGxu